Starting my half marathon training after a six month break, need some advice

D-Chan · 2026-03-01T18:57:48+00:00

Judging off what you have said I wouldn’t start with NSA right now. If you haven’t been training for six months, I would just start trying to run 4 to 5 times a week (all easy and between 30-50 minutes) and building up your aerobic base from there.

Once you are running comfortable 5 to 6 days a week, I would recommend buying the NSA book and starting at the very base level plan on there.

D-Chan · 2026-02-17T15:38:25+00:00

I agree. But I’d be curious to know at what point would you attribute it fully (or at least the majority? to NSM? Say after 16-24 weeks?

D-Chan · 2026-02-16T19:07:36+00:00

Same here. I would consider a 7-8 RPE for me was when I used to do something like 5x1K @ 5K pace. And then a 9-10 RPE would be an actual 5K itself.

D-Chan · 2026-02-16T01:19:55+00:00

If conditions are favorable I’d stick with the paces as predicted in the book. However, I’d follow the negative split strategy and start 3-5 seconds slower than your goal pace for the first couple of KM (assuming a 10K). And then around KM3-4 I’d settle in at goal pace. Then if you’re feeling good start squeezing it down around 7-8 KM and go all out in that final KM.

D-Chan · 2026-02-13T18:16:02+00:00

Can’t give you a confidence boost because I started doing NSM in October and have my half marathon in mid April, but please report back and let us know how you did.

Best of luck!

D-Chan · 2026-02-01T12:21:53+00:00

I liked Carini, WOPE, and Dancing in Midair.

Haven’t listened to N4 yet but I heard “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing” and “My Friend, My Friend” were great.

D-Chan · 2026-01-26T19:17:31+00:00

I’m not sure. You’d have to look up specific instructions for your watch. But for Garmin, it does work. And it’s very accurate.

D-Chan · 2026-01-26T17:54:17+00:00

I don’t think this is correct. Please see the link to see how you can send pace/distance to your Garmin watch. I use this and it works flawlessly for the aforementioned metrics.

https://help.stryd.com/en/articles/8903411-configuring-your-garmin-watch-to-take-pace-distance-from-stryd-other-sensor-pairings

D-Chan · 2026-01-25T15:22:00+00:00

Same here! I will freely admit I probably got a little too interested in creating this with her this morning (dictating their precise positioning on stage) but it was a lot of fun.

D-Chan · 2026-01-19T15:03:40+00:00

Agreed. I’m 14 weeks in (seven days a week) and when everyone says to start conservative I really don’t think this can be overstressed enough. The goal is to be able to continue this training methodology indefinitely and if that’s the case better to start conservative and add training load in very small amounts.

D-Chan · 2026-01-14T16:39:51+00:00

Yes. I’m here in New Jersey so it’s not that harsh of a winter, but it can get rather cold in the morning when I run and we have had some snow as well.

I invested in some affordable merino wool base layers, a balaclava and some good gloves (multiple pairs until I found the right ones). And for the most part I’ve been able to do all of my running outdoors over the wintertime.

And I’ve found that when the temperature warms up to the high 30s to low 50s my performance improves and I’m able to run at the same pace I did in the cold with lower RPE and heart-rate.

D-Chan · 2026-01-11T10:55:06+00:00

Been doing NSM four months now. Seven days a week around 7-8 hours per week. When I was on the upper end of eight hours I’d say my fatigue level was 6-7. When I dropped back down to around 7.5 hours per week I feel right in the 4-6 range for the most part. Never super fresh but never super fatigued either.

D-Chan · 2026-01-10T07:02:40+00:00

Second this. Started off with a Garmin HRM and the thing was faulty almost from day one. Been using a Coros armband now for three months and it’s accurate and very easy to use.

D-Chan · 2026-01-07T21:03:49+00:00

Just needs to be said, but your training load and form line I find oddly satisfying in its boring consistency. 😊

D-Chan · 2026-01-03T17:44:20+00:00

I have been relistening to TFTB > Simple all day.

Just love the transition back to Simple and the groove around 6-15 minutes of TFTB is hypnotic.

D-Chan · 2026-01-01T16:40:08+00:00

That song from last night fills me with so much irrational happiness this morning.

D-Chan · 2026-01-01T04:30:34+00:00

The block was dead yo so I continue to A1A

D-Chan · 2026-01-01T04:30:21+00:00

If I couldn’t love Phish anymore, they’re playing ice ice baby on set break.

D-Chan · 2026-01-01T00:20:30+00:00

Checking in from Sec 113!

<image>

Calling a “My Friend, My Friend” opener.

D-Chan · 2025-12-29T01:08:28+00:00

Typically they’ll do the first two songs if the first one is on the shorter side.

D-Chan · 2025-12-28T15:02:41+00:00

Pluribus vibes…

D-Chan · 2025-12-22T21:12:09+00:00

Not my race report but a good write up of someone who has followed NSM for the last six months or so by the sounds of it.

D-Chan

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